Common Feral and Stray Cat Problems

Common feral and stray cat problems include disease, fear of
humans and continuous breeding. However, several organizations have
tried to solve these problems and are always looking for volunteers to
help reduce the problems.

Fear of Humans

Stray cats are cats who no longer have a home either because of
escape or abandonment. In contrast, feral cats are the cats born to
stray cats who have never lived in a home with humans. If kittens
haven't been exposed to humans by the time they are 12 weeks old, they
may never grow accustomed to human companionship, thus creating a fear
that prevents them from being caught and finding a home.

Like dogs, cats have a socialization window during which they need
to be exposed to all things of which you don't want them to be afraid.
It is especially important to introduce them to many humans during this
time so they never develop fear-related aggression later in life.

Feral cats have not had this opportunity. Depending on their age,
you may be able to teach them to tolerate humans, but it is much harder
with older cats.

When trying to capture a feral or stray cat, use extreme caution.
They may carry diseases, which could be transmitted to you if they try
to bite or scratch out of fear.

Feral Cat Diseases

Feral and stray cats often travel in small colonies, which makes it
much easier for them to contract and spread disease. Since most of the
cats haven't been vaccinated, it is easy for them to contract diseases
such as feline HIV, feline leukemia and even rabies.

While rabies poses the greatest danger to humans because it can
cause cats to be aggressive and spread it to humans, there are many
other disease that can also cause death and disease through cat
colonies. Parvovirus is easily spread as are several respiratory
infections that cause a variety of symptoms such as eye and nasal
discharge, coughing, vomiting and diarrhea.

Cat colonies can also contract fleas and ticks, which lead to
several diseases such as different types of worms, some of which can be
spread to humans or other animals. If these cats visit your yard
looking for food, they may leave these diseases behind in their feces.

Continuous Breeding

The biggest problem caused by feral and stray cat colonies is the
rate at which they are capable of breeding. In seven years, one
breeding pair, which can breed twice a year, can have up to 420,000
offspring. Obviously, not all of these live, but the colonies can
continue to grow.

Because food and resources are difficult to come by, many of these
cats die painful deaths from diseases or starvation. Since some of the
stray cats have been raised in homes, many of them don't have the
hunting skills required to survive in the wild.

So far the most successful strategy for reducing this problem is
capturing stray cats, spaying or neutering them, vaccinating them and
re-releasing them. This prevents other less-healthy colonies from
taking their place when one colony is killed and has shown to greatly
reduce the population of stray and feral cats.